It's a mystery - 2013!

2012 is done, and it really turned out to be one of the lowest years of craft productin for me.  I started out 2012 with alot of momentum; starting and finishing projects, and then hit a slump.  The sudden halt to my crafting, whether it be knitting, crocheting, sewing, you name it, simply was a result of my personal life getting in the way.  After all the craziness with changes last year, finally things are starting to gain perspective and I'm getting back into my groove with all my interests, which includes blogging.

I don't monitor my blog followers and don't know who, if any, read my posts, but if you do, thank you for your support! 

Now, I know 13 is known to be a superstitious number, but I think, for me, it'll be a good. 

So, I'm starting off 2013 with a fresh project, and it's aptly named, "It's a mystery".  This is the annual sock mystery kal hosted by Kirsten Kapur from Through the Loops.  We received the 1st clue today, and I cast on and finished the 1st clue.  Each clue to be released weekly, so I'll have time to give attention to other projects while waiting for the 2nd clue's release.  I love knitting mystery kals', its always nice to see the pattern progress and not know what the end result is.

This was last year's clue 2012:

 

Here's the 1st clue for 2013:

I went with Marmalade from Scout's Swag, a beautiful speckled yellow I picked up years ago in a dye class Scout held at Knit One Knit Two in Berkeley.  The first clue is only the cuff portion, and started off with a picot edging, which immediately made me happy with my yarn choice.  I think the speckled yellow is very fitting for the fun and flirty picot edging.  Now I'm really excited for the next clue!

Aside from this new project, I'm now actively searching my stash for a lace yarn to start another knit mystery hosted by Susanna IC.  This one is a shawl with beads!  This will be my 2nd time doing a Susanna IC mystery kal.    For now those are what's going to be hitting my needles,  but I have more to start, I'll share as those come to fruition. 

Last year's Susanna IC mystery shawl:

I'll be posting again, to share clue 2 of TTL Sock Mystery and clue 1 of Susanna IC Mystery too!  2013 will be a blogging year!

~Rocky

Time..Cute Knits..New Knits

It's been a pretty active start to this 2012 year for knitting.  While other things are in disarray, knitting is coming along to a nice start. 

It is surprising that this month is almost over, how fast these days have been going by.  So other than knitting, what am I doing? 

Well, I'm working, just as I'm sure many of you are, I'm trying, trying to keep things going.  Much harder these days, wish things would get easier, but they never do.

It's nice to have knitting, its a nice break from all the stress.  

I've been finishing up a number of projects, which should I start with?  I'll start with the cute and fun ones, although I must say, cute and fun ones sometimes take more work than full projects, like sweaters, cardigans, etc. 

I made this cute Memento Owlet, such a cute little thing, I named it Halcon, and gave it to Lil' Nenelle.  This cute lil' owl, is all crochet, and somewhat free form crochet.  There was a pattern to follow, but alot of it was, create a flat round to the size you want, crochet round until  the base measures up, fill, seal closed, stitch some ears, and so on.  That's it, so I was on my own, the tricky part was really for me the ears and learning to use what I've learned this far in crocheting.  I'm pretty proud of this lil' guy, it was a small milestone in my limited crochet experience.

Next up a Balloon Tie Sock Monkey!  Such a cool pattern, basically its built off of the premise of actual balloon tying.  You knit a number of tubes, different sizes, all continuous, and stuff along the way.

This is what you get when your done.

Then, that's where the magic begins!  You learn to tie the monkey, and voila!  Your sock monkey is born...

I'll admit, it took awhile for me to figure out how to tie this thing, and yes, the pattern does come with instructions, but once I fully understood how to do the tying, it was easy!   I really want to make more, the design book I have for these has patterns for a tiger, tiara, you name it. 

One last fun knit, this Pin Cushion! Love it! So super fast to make.

For all these, used nothing but stash yarn, no extra purchasing, even better!

I also was able to finish a quick lovely cowl, it is Tweed Burberry Cowl.

This one is fast too, and so warm, again I pulled yarn from my stash, love the tweed black yarn.

I have alot of other projects going on, I'll share a couple:

New SusannaIC Mystery shawl - Clue 1

New Through The Loops - Sock Mystery  - Clue 4

Much more going on and more to share, as always, hope all of you are enjoying this first month of the New Year!

WIP Wednesday

So, where am I at?

I've been making good progress on the VITA cardi, working on it pretty often.  The back is completed, one of the front panels is done and almost half (if not more than that) of the 2nd front panel is close to done.   After that its arms, front collar, and belt.  Oh yah, then block and seam.  The ribbing portion can be a bit annoying, knitting almost 10 inches of ribbing can sometimes be a pain because of swinging the yarn "front to back, front to back" and so on. 

YES, I'm still liking this cardi, and get more excited the closer I get to completion.

As for the Homin shawl I started, I ripped out, not because I didn't love it or went astray with the pattern, because I simply didn't keep track of where I was at.  I did read the knitting to determine where I was at in the pattern, but I still wasn't confident, and figured that I hadn't made much headway into the shawl that it was better to frog and start over then chance the setup rows.  So a'froggin I went.

So here she is once more, a wee smaller than before, but soon it'll grow.  I had this in my lovely green flower Lantern Moon bag and was laughing to myself when I started 'oogling the Ella Rea yarn cake for the shawl.  Cracked myself up that I was acting as if I was 'oogling a new yarn I hadn't seen before and realizing, "ahh, yah that's why you bought it!".

In other WIP news, the Cranked Trekking KAL socks are still stuck at Clue 2, I just haven't had the time to download the remaining clues and continue knitting.  I'm in no rush for these either but being so close to another FO is tempting, so maybe just maybe I'll squeeze in time *-)

Ooh, and I have a new "sooper seekret" project for my Etsy store that I've been plotting.  I have a few "opening day" items I'm working on, this being one of them.  I don't have a date set yet, I don't want to rush the process, but I'm guessing end of 2nd quarter beginning of 3rd quarter.  It may even be sooner, like a preview opening.  Here's a picture of some of the key materials for one of the items.  Can you guess what it is?  I'll say a majority of knitters have them, but both items have yet to be married into one complete piece, if that makes any sense.  That's about all I can say without totally answering the clue. 8)

Happy Wednesday!

Give me a HY a VKT!

Yes! It's Friday!

I said "burr it's cold in here, there must be some HITHER in the atmosphere"!

I said "HY"!

That lyric is from the movie Bring It On, well the Hither is Toros in the real version.

This is the lovely latest installment of Hello Yarn fiber club.

All right "she'll wear you out livin la VITA loca come on"!

That lyric, you should know it, is from the pop sensation song "Livin La Vida Loca".

Just bought all this Vita yarn needed for my VITA Cardi, and yes it's progressing!

And now "this is a KNITSCENE, its a god damn arms race"!

That lyric is from one of my favorite songs from Fall Out Boy, original lyrics are "this ain't a scene, its a god damn arms race".

Pictures are from the latest Knitscene for Summer 2011, two pics of patterns I love in it.   Definitely a good issue to have.

Lastly...

"Here we go again, I kind of wanna be more than friends"

These last lyrics are from my current favorite song, that I love to hear, "Animal" by Neon Trees.  I love the lyrics of the song and the beat is so uplifting.  I know they don't go along with picture, but I couldn't resist using it.   The picture is both the Clue 1/2 of the current "Cranked" Trekking Kal socks for April.

Happy Friday!

~Rocky

Bag Lady

For the Socks that Rawk group, Q1 "Tina's Choice" KAL.

I knitted these on and off over the 3 months.  Just simply got distracted with other knitting and then of course life always calls too.

The heel portion adds a decent amount of length to the foot, originally I had about a size 7.5 sock, which is way too long for my little size 5.  I ripped back down to about 4.5 inches and started the heel again, this time it worked out perfectly, although I think if I were to use this version of heel, I'd go with maybe 4 inches to give it a more snug fit.   

I was originally skeptical about having garter stitch toe and heel, but it's actually pretty comfortable.  The pattern simply ends at the leg portion, you just bind off in pattern, no cuff.  I did, however, try a version of a garter stitch cuff and didn't like it, so I ripped it out and went with the pattern instructions.

All and all I'm happy with them, another pair of socks to add to my ever growing sock wardrobe.

Quick note about the pictures, it was quite interesting contorting my body to get these pics.  Although the time I spent contorting did count as a small but always needed workout! 

Pattern: Solstice Slip by JC Briar
 Yarn: Socks that Rock - Lightweight "Bag Lady" colorway
Needles: US 1 (Addi Lace)
Started: January 16, 2011
Finished: March 28, 2011

Mods: Front (instep) stitches are 30, and the sole st’s are 25. I did this intentionally to make the sock fit snug, since my feet are small and narrow. At heel portion, increased to the 35 sts.  When done with the heel portion, the first round that starts the decreases (k2tog/ssk) I picked up all wrapped stitches on the first and last stitches that I did decreases on. This worked great and closing any holes.  I went with ankle socks instead of the traditional longer leg.